I don’t typically read creepypasta. I remember how I first learned about the character Slender Man. It wasn’t on the Internet. I was told about it by one of the teens who was in this Sunday School class I was leading. (Don’t laugh. I’m serious. I only *look* like evil incarnate. In terms of behavior, I’m *mostly* a decent sort, most of the time. Unless the meds need adjusting, but then that’s on the doctors, not me. It’s their fault!) I’m probably a little behind the time, then, when it comes to Smile Dog, which is apparently now a “thing” among Internet users.
According to the lore, the Smile Dog appears in a photograph (much like Slender Man) in the form of a grinning Siberian husky (not like Slender Man). After someone sees the image, that person becomes tormented by nightmares until he forwards the image to other people (like in THE RING where you have to show the cursed videotape to someone else, or in IT FOLLOWS where you have to have sex with someone to pass the curse to them). If nothing else, Smile Dog is another example of the ways the Internet speeds up the development of folklore by degrees. It also goes to show that you can make just about anything—even a dog—creepy.
Am I the only one now thinking of the “classic” 1970s made-for-TV fright flick DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL?